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Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

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Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#2
This is a very simple Javascript notebook in one completely self-contained HTML file. It was inspired by the concept of Jupyter notebooks.

You can enter Javascript code and execute it in the browser, completely locally and possibly offline. The performance can be pretty good.

You can put in HTML documentation and also use HTML to provide UI for simple tools.

All you need is the js+help.html file, which contains basic documentation. You can clear out the notebook and save off various javascript experiments in different files.

I have mostly used this with Chrome. I have tried it with Firefox, and also on various OSs (Linux/Windows/Mac). The main compatibility issue is the handling of the downloading of files and how that varies in different contexts.

I just recently modified this to work better for the mobile (small screen) case. I have done testing after these changes, but not extensive testing.

It is easy to extract a CSS and a JS file that could be stored separately to make for very small notebook files.

I deliberately chose the "Unlicense". (I might claim copyright, but only to discourage someone else from claiming copyright.) The coding style could probably be improved, but I wanted not to use new features to maintain compatibility with older browsers.

I will try to respond to comments and questions, but may be a little slow.

Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#5

Please add a screenshot of what a rendered notebook looks like.

If you download and open up the html file, it contains, what is essentially, a screenshot with explanations. (A very simple screenshot, but one you can extrapolate from.)

But that requires us downloading and opening it. A lot of effort if one just wants to take a quick look. A screenshot or demo would be better.

Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you download and open up the html file, it contains, what is essentially, a screenshot with explanations. (A very simple screenshot, but one you can extrapolate from.)

But that requires us downloading and opening it. A lot of effort if one just wants to take a quick look. A screenshot or demo would be better.

OK. I am afraid that I am not very knowledgeable about github, or YCombinator comments, but I'll give it a shot.

Here is a screen shot:

Simple screenshot:

https://github.com/timcwinkler/javascript-notebook/blob/main...

What you see if you load js+help.html:

https://github.com/timcwinkler/javascript-notebook/blob/main...

(Will the links work as I hoped? ... I am not disappointed.)

Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that requires us downloading and opening it. A lot of effort if one just wants to take a quick look. A screenshot or demo would be better.

OK. I am afraid that I am not very knowledgeable about github, or YCombinator comments, but I'll give it a shot. Here is a screen shot: Simple screenshot: https://github.com/timcwinkler/javascript-notebook/blob/main... What you see if you load js+help.html: https://github.com/timcwinkler/javascript-notebook/blob/main... (Will the links work as I hoped? ... I am not disappointed.)

Don't get me wrong, I know that my comment sounds a little bit weird in the context of your project. I know that I could just rightclick the file, download and open it in the browser.

It's just more of a hint to you that, whenever you want to show something to the public, every extra action the user has to make, could lose you that user.

Keep in mind that "we" want to figure out in seconds if we want to spend more time looking at what you have created or not.

Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#8
As I said this is all very simple, the one thing that makes it a little bit more interesting is the save button. You can do some computations/calculations and save the results (by downloading) into the same file or a new file.

I have even modified the javascript code of the page itself and saved it away (not really directly supported).

Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK. I am afraid that I am not very knowledgeable about github, or YCombinator comments, but I'll give it a shot. Here is a screen shot: Simple screenshot: https://github.com/timcwinkler/javascript-notebook/blob/main... What you see if you load js+help.html: https://github.com/timcwinkler/javascript-notebook/blob/main... (Will the links work as I hoped? ... I am not disappointed.)

Don't get me wrong, I know that my comment sounds a little bit weird in the context of your project. I know that I could just rightclick the file, download and open it in the browser. It's just more of a hint to you that, whenever you want to show something to the public, every extra action the user has to make, could lose you that user. Keep in mind that "we" want to figure out in seconds if we want to spend more ti…

What I would wish that I could do is just make it so that there was a link to the HTML file in the Readme. Click it and there you go. My impression is that this is discouraged. (Am I wrong about that?)

Re: Show HN: A simple JavaScript notebook in one file

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get me wrong, I know that my comment sounds a little bit weird in the context of your project. I know that I could just rightclick the file, download and open it in the browser. It's just more of a hint to you that, whenever you want to show something to the public, every extra action the user has to make, could lose you that user. Keep in mind that "we" want to figure out in seconds if we want to spend more ti…

What I would wish that I could do is just make it so that there was a link to the HTML file in the Readme. Click it and there you go. My impression is that this is discouraged. (Am I wrong about that?)

You can do that with Github Pages, but I'm not too knowledgable. But I copied your code in an codesandbox:

https://ijlkq.csb.app/

Fork it if you want, I will delete it then (or on your request)

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